What are your child or teen’s in-born strengths? How often do you notice what your child has done right before what they have done wrong?

Strength-based parenting is an approach where parents deliberately focus on the positive qualities of their child and help your child to connect with their in-born strengths such as kindness, persistence, agility or humour. You could think of it as ‘strength spotting’.

If, as a family, we help each other to cultivate positive states, then this is protective in terms of mental health as well as life satisfaction and self-confidence. Psychologists, Professor Lea Waters at the University of Melbourne, has developed a web service; The Strength Exchange, as a resource for parents.

There are also a number of online surveys that children can take to help them identify and think about their strengths. The Gallup Institute has the StrengthsExplorer for children aged 10-14 and the StrengthsQuest for children aged 15-25. If parents and children are interested in identifying personality strengths, they can go to The Values in Action Institute and complete the free online VIA-Youth survey.

You can also talk to one of our Psychologists at Caloundra Psychological Services about using strength-based parenting.

Neurofeedback therapy (also known as NFT or Neurotherapy) is training for the brain in much the same way as physical therapy trains the body. NFT trains healthy brain habits in order to improve a person’s mental and physical health and well-being.